Authored by Mayunk_Jain, this article presents the upcoming billing structure for Azure SRE Agent and provides an in-depth look at its AI-driven incident management capabilities and cost models tailored for cloud reliability engineering.

Introduction

At Microsoft Build 2025, Microsoft introduced the Azure SRE Agent, an advanced AI tool designed to enhance incident response, improve service uptime, and reduce operational costs. The SRE Agent leverages AI models to accelerate log and metric analysis, enabling efficient root cause analysis and rapid issue resolution for Azure-based systems. Its deployment aims to streamline infrastructure management in Azure, freeing up Site Reliability Engineers (SRE) to focus on higher-value activities.

Starting September 1, 2025, billing for the Azure SRE Agent will be active. Pricing details will vary by region and can be found on the Azure pricing page.

Overview of Azure SRE Agent

Azure SRE Agent employs machine learning and monitoring to proactively manage cloud resources. It detects anomalies, executes automated remediation, and constantly learns from observed application behaviors. The agent’s always-on, dual-action architecture allows continual coverage, with the flexibility to respond immediately when operational intervention is required.

The product is key to Microsoft’s “Agentic DevOps” initiative, which involves embedding AI-powered agents throughout the software development lifecycle. This evolution supports more intelligent orchestration of cloud operations, moving away from manual coordination in favor of automated, scalable solutions for cloud-native development.

Azure Agent Unit (AAU): The New Billing Metric

Billing for Azure SRE Agent is standardized using Azure Agent Units (AAU), which represent a common metric for measuring the processing associated with AI agents in Azure. This model simplifies price comparisons and adoption across existing and future pre-built Azure agents.

Scalable, Usage-Based Billing Model

Azure SRE Agent’s billing is split into two key components:

  1. Baseline (fixed) cost – Always-on flow:
    • Each agent incurs 4 AAU per hour as a baseline rate. This covers continuous monitoring and background learning by the agent, guaranteeing 24/7 protection.
  2. Usage-based (variable) cost – Active flow:
    • When incidents or specific operational tasks are triggered, the agent’s active interventions are billed at 0.25 AAU per second during the period of activity. This approach allows customers to pay only for what they utilize during active incident mitigations and automations.

The total monthly cost is a combination of these two components, ensuring predictability and transparency.

Billing Summary Table

Billing Component Type Pay As You Go Rate
Baseline (fixed cost) Always-on flow 4 AAU per agent per hour
Usage-based (variable cost) Active flow 0.25 AAU per agent task per second

Example Cost Scenarios

To help illustrate the billing impact, here are a few scenarios using an example AAU price of .10 and a 31-day (730-hour) month.

Minimal Incidents

  • Context: Azure SRE Agent is deployed in test environments; four brief active tasks (~5 min each) occur monthly, but otherwise no major incidents.
  • Baseline (Always-on): 4 AAU x 730h x .10 = $292/month per agent
  • Active tasks: 0.25 AAU x 4 tasks x 300s x .10 = $30/month per agent
  • Total: $322/month per agent

High Operational Load

  • Context: Enterprise manages five production workloads with five SRE Agents, each handling 2 daily incidents (10 minutes each).
  • Baseline: $292 x 5 agents = $1460/month
  • Active tasks:
    • Per agent: 0.25 AAU x 2 tasks/day x 31 days x 600s x .10 = $930/month per agent
    • 5 agents total: $930 x 5 = $4650/month
  • Total: $1222/month per agent; $6110/month for five agents

Burst Events

  • Context: One SRE Agent oversees workloads for five customers; a single burst event triggers 50 incidents (5 minutes each) in a month.
  • Baseline: 4 AAU x 730h x .10 = $292/month per agent
  • Active tasks: 0.25 AAU x 50 tasks x 300s x .10 = $375/month per agent
  • Total: $667/month per agent

Note: These estimates are for illustration only. Actual costs will depend on real-world usage and current AAU pricing.

Getting Started

To deploy Azure SRE Agent, join the waitlist as rollout is phased. During the preview period, features and pricing are subject to change. For additional details and to estimate costs in your region, refer to the following resources:

Conclusion

Azure SRE Agent marks a significant step towards AI-native, automated reliability management in the Azure cloud. With its transparent billing model based on Azure Agent Units, organizations can plan and scale SRE efforts predictably and efficiently, freeing engineers to deliver greater value across their cloud platforms.

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